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It’s frustrating that we’re still not there (with even one daily-drivable phone), but it’s getting closer and closer.
I also think it’s possible to get a lot of value from these devices in the meantime- when used as pocketable tablets. I have to carry a light backpack around pretty often anyway, so it’s easy enough to just throw an old Android in there for calls / SMS and tether a OnePlus 6 (with pmOS) to it for everything else.
Some say it’s better not to use cellphones at all.
I had similar experience with PinePhone Pro. I used Mobian instead of PostMarketOS because it is based on Debian instead of Alpine.
Never considered anything other than Android, but it’s an excellent idea. It’s a shame none of the options are good. Anyone have any insight as to why things suck?
I have a PinePhone and the article is on point.
My understanding is: Android is here for many years now. When it was just released I got the HTC G1 and it was only barely better than what Mobian + Phosh present right now. Add to that many years of polishing by some of the most powerful corporations out there and you end up with Android as it is today.
Mobile Linux made unbelieveable progress. It is, in my opinion, almost as usable as a dumb phone as first Androids were. The problem is as others have pointed it out, we need people working tirelessly on thankless polishing of everything around it. It’s hard without throwing money at that issue.
I’d say wildly variable hardware configurations with poor driver support.
The situation would improve if hardware vendors would upstream the code, but I just don’t see it.
As much as Alphabet sucks ass, I have had very good results with Nexus/Pixel devices and LineageOS. All the hardware seems to be supported right down to high-framerate mode on the camera on the Pixel2.
Google seems to be the exception, as they are working to upstream the Android kernel work as much as possible. This is a smart move, because it saves them money by reducing the work needed to keep Android in sync with Linux.
I am still hopeful Linux is the future of mobile devices. I really dislike that on android 5 years of feature updates is really good and only the best phones can strive for this, where as a 10 year old laptop or desktop computer can usually run Linux without any problems and expect both security and feature updates as long as you want. Not even mentioning the limited choice in software that works in an android environment.
I currently use Sailfish which isn’t what most people mean by mobile linux and does have a lot of problems, but hopefully my sailfish device I have now will see me through until mobile linux is at the point I feel like I can move across.
You can run Linux on computers much older than 10 years. The kernel still supports the Intel 486, which was released in 1989. The developers only recently started talking about dropping support for it.
It’s ridiculous that a typical smart phone is e-waste within a couple of years.
